Today's Round Up

So I'm watching the hockey game last night between my Washington Capitals and their rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins. My man Richard Park came back from playing in Europe and signed on with the Penguins. He's not a standout player, but a 3rd or 4th line kind of guy. If you're not familiar with hockey, each team has 4 lines and they rotate them in and out of the game on shifts. Usually your top two lines have your main stars and scorers. Anyway, at last night's game, the play by play announcer, Doc Emerick makes a comment about Richard Park as being "from Seoul, Korea". Huh?

You know, that kind of stuff just promotes North American Asians as somehow being this "other" group, still foreign and "not one of us". For those in the hockey world who know, yes, Park was born in Seoul, but as a kid his family emigrated to North America. He grew up in Canada and the US. Maybe it's nothing, but it just kind of irked me that McGuire didn't fill in the blanks and say more about Park's background, like he grew up in North America and took up hockey . Am I being too sensitive? Maybe. But I still don't like it. Anyway, my man Richard made a great play against the Caps, damn him! One of the Caps top sniper had a wide open net to shoot the puck into but Richard laid himself out and blocked the shot with part of his body.

Also, in today's Washington Post, there's an interesting bit in the Washington Post's TV Column about the stupid CBS show "Two Broke Girls" and the constant stereotyping of minorities in the show for stupid laughs from stupid people. An excerpt from the article:

A couple of questions later, King noted that in the last three episodes, he had not written a single Asian joke – only made short jokes about Han, the diner owner. Then he wondered aloud if the critics would consider a “blond rich b----” a stereotype or a “sarcastic-mouthed waitress” a stereotype.

Critics did not even feel that slap — they were way back at where King said he hadn’t done a single Asian racist gag in three whole episodes, confining himself to short jokes about Han.

“Does that mean you’re not going to go back to Asian stereotypes?” one critic asked, hopefully.

“I’m gay!” an exasperated King shouted, flinging himself around in his chair on stage. “I’m putting in gay stereotypes very week! . . . I don’t find it offensive -- any of this. I find it comic to take everybody down!”

Another critic jumped on the pile, asking King whether being a member of one traditionally disenfranchised minority makes it okay for him to make fun of members of other disenfranchised minorities.

Unbelievable. How the hell do you battle bad media images of yourself when nimrods like this guy have control?

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